Beauty All-Access: Janelle Monae At The Essence Music Festival

Essence Music Festival brought us to our knees with every song heard. But there was one artist that we were head over heels for! Janelle Monae wowed the crowd bellowing her latest hits and cruising around the stage for our enjoyment. But we could not stop staring at her face.

We caught up with our favorite celebrity makeup artist and COVERGIRL ambassador, Sam Fine and he spilled all the details on how to achieve this look.

Inspiration for the look: Janelle is known for having great style and wearing classic black/white clothing… and a signature red lip. It’s always my goal to bring something new to each face without changing or challenging the client’s personal style. So, I placed my focus on skin, lashes and lips!

Face: Janelle’s skin is fantastic, so I used two shades of truBLEND Foundation – one to highlight the under eye area and the other to match her complexion perfectly! I barely used any powder because truBLEND dries down to a powdery finish and I really wanted to maintain a “second-skin” effect. I love enhancing skin with bronzer, so the next product I selected from my makeup arsenal was Queen Collection Natural Hue Bronzer. I applied it to the outer perimeter of the face (forehead, cheeks, etc.), which provides dimension, contour and a soft, subtle glow.